Has anyone on here dealt with NYS sales tax problems?

[schirallicpa]

I have someone inquiring about NYS sales tax back tax issues.  I honestly hate dealing with NYS.  But wondered if anyone on here had experience with this.  I advertise that I deal with IRS issues, and NYS income tax issues, so I received this inquiry.  He's got 24K in back tax and penalties after letting someone else run a business under his ID.  (Yeah - that's a red flag right there.)

[ILLMAS]

Not In NY but I have had two clients recently handled back sales taxes themselves for IL, both are on payment plans.

[KATHERINE]

Hi Schiralli,

You know NYS Sales Tax collection is very rough.  They wont listen that who is actually running business at all.  It is very hard to prove your client did not involve the business, and there is no filing of change responsible person. They will only look at who is the responsible personal registered.  I think he cannot get away from that.  Hope he can recover from that 'real owner'. 

If he cannot pay, may be do a OIC? 

Thank you!

Kate

 

[Patrick Michael]

I have had a couple of cases with the NY sales tax people.  One, the agent was very helpful, listened to us and even waived the penalty.  The other two, the agents were  real jerks and impossible to deal with.  Didn't want to hear anything except when they could expect payment.  It seemed like they were working on commission, getting a cut of every case they closed.  If your client was on file as a "responsible person" it's hard to argue that he didn't know what was going on.